The social network’s new video feature may pull viewers away from YouTube.
You may use Facebook for social networking, but for videos you turn to YouTube. Now the leading social network wants you to know that you can stay on their site even for your online video viewing.
Videos on Facebook are not new, but a new feature launched to a small test group of Facebook users now allows people on the social network to search and view videos without having to scroll through their news feed, according to USA Today. Even without the service, Facebook users watch about 4 billion videos a day on the site.
The new feature allows users to tap a “video” icon on Facebook which then suggests videos matched to the user’s preferences.
Facebook is also testing a “suggested videos” feature which automatically offers related videos after users watch a video on the site. This feature is currently available on iPhone and will soon be tested on Android devices.
Other new video options the company are testing involve a split screen, allowing users to watch video on one screen while continuing to monitor their news feed, and a save function that allows videos to be saved for later viewing.
Facebook is also testing new video features aimed at publishers, including video matching and other tools for Facebook pages.
Leave a Reply